Balanced color illumination system



Dec. 9, 1958 Y B. R. GLUKES 2,863,240

BALANCED coLoR ILLUMINATION SYSTEM Filed June 8, 1956 INVENTOR. /V@ 2,GLZ/ZES acz 2504/6/47 United States Patent Olce 2,863,240 Patented Dec.9, 1958 BALAN CED COLOR ILLUMINATION SYSTEM Bernard R. Glukes, NorthHollywood, Calif. Application June 8, 1956, Serial No. 590,242

4 Claims. (Cl. 40-132) This invention relates to lighting and moreparticularly to lighting of signs and displays.

In my United States Patent No. 2,300,447, issued November 3, 1942, Idisclosed and claimed an animated sign using the principle of colorocclusion. In my copending application Serial No. 461,317, tiled October11, 1954, I disclosed an improved mechanism for obtaining colored lightalternations utilizing three light sources, one of which was a whitelight. In my subsequent copending application Serial No. 499,045, Idisclosed a further improvement utilizing two complementary lightsources providing improved lighting characteristics.

This present application is a continuation-in-part of thelast mentionedapplication Serial No. 499,045 and is concerned with the balance betweenthe complementary light sources and the improved visual elfects.

It is therefore, an object of this invention to provide a novel lightsource which functions as a highly eiicient color corrective lightsource.

It is still a further object of this invention to provide a light sourcefor an animated sign producing enhanced lighting effects.

Other objects and advantages will be readily apparent from the followingdescription:

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of an animated sign.

Figure 2 is a section taken along line 2--2 of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an elevation of the light sources.

Figure 4 illustrates the appearance of one of the indicia when all lightsources are functioning and when each source is operating.

Figure 5 is a section taken along line 5-5 of Figure l.

In this embodiment the light source comprises three lamps, 10, 11 and12, which are colored turquoise, red and turquoise respectively. Suchlamps may be painted incandescent lamps. These colors are suggested asan example and `any combination of substantially complementary colorsmay be used such as red and green. The lamps are housed in a cabinet 14having in one wall thereof a plate or sign face 16 to be illuminated.This sign face may be formed of an opalescent plate, groundglass plateor any other light diiusing material. An example utilized herein is asuitable transparent light transmitting sheet 18 having the sideadjacent the lamps covered with a light diffusing translucent whitepaint 20. White is preferred though any color may be used which will notnoticeably occlude either of the light sources utilized. The front faceof the sign has indicia 21 thereon, in this instance the letters A, B, Cand D, which are formed of colored transparent or translucent paints.The background 22 is formed of an opaque paint preferably of contrastingcolor with the indicia. Although it is preferred that the background beopaque and the indicia vbe transparent the degree of opacity of each maybe varied as long as there is a contrast between the two. ln the presentexample each indicia is formed on an outer and inner outline of blue(see Figures 1 and 4) with a middle outline of red, the outlines of theletters being separated by white areas formed by the white paint 20through transparent sheet 18.

As seen in Figure 4, when both the red and turquoise lights areilluminated the indicia will be lighted red in the center surrounded bywhite and having a blue border. When only the red light is illuminatedthe red and white areas transmit light and appear red while the bluearea by the color occlusion principle absorbs the red light rays andappears black. In this instance there is a slight contrast between thered and white areas although both are red in color. The background 22 iswhatever color of opaque paint was selected.

When only the turquoise lamps are illuminated the letters appear bluethrough the transparent blue and white areas and black through the redarea of the indicia, while the background remains unchanged in color.

Thus in operation the lights are alternately illuminated for example,rst the turquoise, then the red, then simultaneously, that is, both redand turquoise in any desired time intervals and sequence by a suitablecam system, as more particularly described in my copending application,Serial No. 461,317, or any other means well known to those skilled inthe art, giving the sign an animated eifect.

lt has been determined that the proper balance to obtain the desiredwhite areas in the indicia when both lights are illuminated requiresthat the turquoise or short wave length light source outbalances the redor long wave length light source between ve to one and two to one inluminative power. If the upper limit of ve to one is exceeded thedesired white areas are bluish in color and if the lower limit of two toone is exceeded they are reddish in color. Also there has been notedthat such a light balancing produces a glowing elect in the indiciasimilar to fluorescence of the indicia.

A light source thus formed of substantially complementary light sourcesin the ratio above set forth also produces startling elfects when usedto light up a display or sign by reection, reecting back all the colorsin a true fashion similar to sunlight, thus producing a far morerealistic scene for example, in artists studios, store windows andinterior set lighting and similar uses.

While what hereinbefore has been described is the preferred embodimentof this invention, it is readily apparent that alterations andmodifications may be resorted to without departing from the scope ofthis invention and such alterations and modicatons are intended to beincluded within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An animated indicia device comprising a pair of substantiallycomplementary colored incandescent light sources having different wavelengths, means for energizing said sources at predetermined intervalsand simultaneously and light transmission indicia illuminated by lightfrom said sources and having at least one color element, the same as oneof said light sources, the illuminating intensity of the shorter wavelength light source being more than two and less than tive times greaterthan the illuminating intensity of the longer wave length light source.

2. An animated indicia device comprising a pair of substantiallycomplementary colored incandescent light sources having different wavelengths, means for energizing said sources at predetermined intervalsand simultaneously, light transmission indicia illuminated by light fromsaid sources and having at least one color element substantially thesame as one of said light sources, and a white light transmittingelement, the illuminating intensity of the shorter wave length lightsource being more than two and les's than five times greater than theilluminating intensity of the greater length light source.

3. An animated indicia device comprising a pair of substantiallycomplementary coloredsincandescent light sources having dilerent wavelengths, means forenergz' ing said sources at predetermined intervalslland simultaneously, and light transmission indicia i'llur'ninatedbylight from said sources and having substantially Icomplementary colorelements, the same assaid light sources, the illuminating intensity `ofthe shorter wave length light source being more than two and less thanve 'times greater than the illuminating intensity of the longer Wavelength light source.A t

4. An animated indicia device Ycomprising a pair of substantiallycomplementary Vcolored incandescent light sources having diferentwavelengths,v means for energizing said sources at predeterminedintervals,light transmission 'indicia illuminated by light from said sources 4 andhaving substantially complementary color elements, the lsame as saidlight sources, separated by a white light transmitting element, theilluminating intensity of one light source being more than two and lessthan five times greater than the illuminating intensity of the greaterlength light source.

References Cited in the file of this patent t UNITED STATES PATENTS643,872

Hill Feb. 20, 1900 655,264 Nichol Aug. 7, 1900 1,276,494 Craig Y Y..aAug. 20, 1918 1,342,247 Bittinger June 1, 1920 1,348,957 P'ope Aug. 10,1920 1,357,783 Leachman Nov. 2, 1920 1,374,282 Craig Apr. 12, 1921

